Birth-control mandate finalized

Saturday

Jun 29, 2013 at 12:01 AMJun 29, 2013 at 2:40 PM

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration issued a final rule yesterday requiring many employers and health insurance plans to provide free coverage of contraceptives for women, a policy that has touched off a furious legal and political battle likely to rage for another year.

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration issued a final rule yesterday requiring many employers and health insurance plans to provide free coverage of contraceptives for women, a policy that has touched off a furious legal and political battle likely to rage for another year.

The rule adopts a simplified version of an approach proposed by the government in February to balance the interests of women with the concerns of the Roman Catholic Church and other employers with religious objections to providing coverage for contraceptives.

After considering more than 400,000 comments, administration officials refused to budge. The final rule, they said, is very similar to their proposal that figured prominently into last year’s elections as Democrats pressed their advantage with female voters.

Democrats describe the mandate for coverage of birth control as one of the chief benefits of the 2010 health-care law, a boon to women and their health.

“The health-care law guarantees millions of women access to recommended preventive services at no cost,” said Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services. “Today’s announcement reinforces our commitment to respect the concerns of houses of worship and other nonprofit religious organizations that object to contraceptive coverage, while helping to ensure that women get the care they need, regardless of where they work.”

Republicans say the requirement shows how intrusive and onerous the law is.

The rule does not satisfy the concerns of certain religious organizations or commercial businesses whose owners have religious objections to contraceptive coverage.

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in Denver, said on Thursday that the owners of Hobby Lobby — a craft store chain that describes itself as “a faith-based company” — could pursue their case against the mandate and were likely to succeed.

Eric C. Rassbach, a deputy general counsel of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which has represented plaintiffs in that case and others challenging the law, said the final rule did nothing to meet the objections of his clients.

“So there is a fundamental conflict that will have to be resolved in court,” he said.

A number of federal judges had deferred decisions until the White House issued a final regulation.

Under provisions of the new health-care law that take effect in January, employers with more than 50 workers generally will be required to offer health insurance to employees, or they will be subject to financial penalties.

Among the “essential health benefits” that must be provided are preventive services. In particular, the administration says, most health plans must cover sterilization and the full range of contraceptive methods approved by the Food and Drug Administration, including emergency contraceptive pills, like those known as ella and Plan B One-Step.

Under the rule issued yesterday, the government said certain “religious employers” — primarily houses of worship — may exclude contraceptive coverage from their health plans for employees and their dependents. In effect, they will be exempt from the federal requirement to provide contraceptive coverage.

The rule also lays out what the administration describes as an accommodation for other nonprofit religious and church-affiliated organizations that object to contraceptive coverage, such as hospitals and institutions of higher education.

Under the rule, these organizations will not have to contract, arrange or pay for contraceptive coverage to which they object on religious grounds.

Instead, the administration said, such coverage will be “separately provided to women enrolled in their health plans at no cost.”

Under this arrangement, a nonprofit religious employer must notify its insurer that it objects to contraceptive coverage. The insurer must then notify people in the health plan that it will provide them with payments for contraceptive services as long as they remain in the health plan.

Many employers serve as their own insurers and hire outside companies to administer benefits and pay claims.

In such cases, the administration said, the “third-party administrator” must inform people in an employer-sponsored health plan that it is “providing or arranging separate no-cost payments for contraceptive services.”

The new rule is the fourth version of the contraceptive-coverage requirement in the past 20 months. All were announced on Fridays, a day when federal agencies typically release statements that could cause controversy.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said: “Today’s ruling strikes a fair balance between religious liberties and the reproductive rights of all women. Access to contraception shouldn’t be dictated by a woman’s employer.”